Could I – then – shut the door –
Lest my beseeching face – at last –
Rejected – be – of Her?
-
F188 (1861) 220
This is a snippet of a letter that has been judged by
scholars more profound and learned than me to be poetry. I quote entirely from
David Preest here as to the context and interpretation:
This poem is the whole of another note (L239) sent by
Emily to Sue, and like the questions in poem 213 expects the answer ‘No.’ No,
Emily could not shut the door on Sue, if only for fear that her own beseeching
face be finally rejected by Sue. But for what reason does Emily need to say
that she could not shut the door on Sue? It is hardly likely that Sue would have accused
Emily of shutting the door on her, but more possible that Sue, busy with the
new baby, has not replied to Emily’s notes. Some confirmation of this can be
found in a letter which Sue sent to Emily in late October 1861. She says, ‘I
have intended to write you Emily today but the quiet has not been mine _ I
should send you this, lest I should seem to have turned away from a kiss – If you have suffered this past Summer I
am sorry. I Emily bear a sorrow that I never
uncover. If a nightingale sings with her breast against a thorn, why not we? When I can, I shall write (Sewall, p. 203).’
Johnson and Franklin date this short poem as 1861. On June 19, 1861, Susan and Austin’s first child, Edward (Ned) Dickinson, was born. In September or October 1861 Susan Dickinson wrote Emily,
ReplyDelete“I have intended to write you Emily to-day but the quiet has not been mine—I send you this, lest I should seem to have turned away from a kiss—
“If you have suffered this past Summer—I am sorry—[for] I Emily bear a sorrow that I never uncover—If a nightingale sings with her breast against a thorn, why not we? When I can, I shall write—
“Sue”
This is the only extant note from Sue to Emily that is about personal matters. (An unanswered question: Out of the many letters from Sue to Emily that Lavinia burned, why did she save this note?)
It’s likely this note is Sue’s reply to ED’s short ‘Could I – then – shut the door’, an attempt to explain to ED why Sue has seemed so distant. Apparently, ED’s psyche wasn’t prepared for Sue’s understandable focus on her new first-born, and she subconsciously interpreted Sue’s lack of attention as the death of their relationship. Some first-time fathers may have similar feelings about their newly post-natal wives.
Habegger, Alfred. My Wars Are Laid Away in Books (p. 525). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.